In Praise of Organic Chemistry

Here's something that you don't see every day: an article in the New York Times praising the sophomore organic chemistry course. It's from the Education section, and it's written from the author's own experience: Contemplating a midlife career change from science writer to doctor, I spent eight months last year at Harvard Extension School slogging through two semesters of organic chemistry, or orgo, the course widely known for weeding out pre-meds. At 42, I was an anomaly, older than most of my classmates (and both professors), out of college for two decades and with two small children. When I wasn’t hopelessly confused, I spent my time wondering what the class was actually about. Because I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just about organic chemistry. For me, the overriding question was not “Is this on the test?” but rather “What are they really testing?” That's a worthwhile question. Organic chemistry is a famous rite of passage for pre-med students, but it's safe to say that its details don't come up all that often in medical practice, at least not in the forms one finds them in most second-year courses. Of course, there's a lot to the viewpoint expressed by Chemjobber on Twitter, that if you can't understand sophomore organic, there are probably a lot of other topics in medical science you're going to have trouble understanding, too. The article touches on this, too: But the rules have many, many exceptions, which students find maddening. The same molecule will be...
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: Chemical News Source Type: blogs